An Israeli-NASA team-up will present a live webcast Sunday and Monday, between 9 and 11 p.m. (2-4 p.m. EDT), using a robotic telescope for a special journey into deep space, with sonification for the blind.

The “Deep Space Live Web Cast” can be viewed by clicking here . It is a global effort coordinated simultaneously by different organizations around the world and provides a unique opportunity for educators, students, amateur astronomers and the general public to use human senses to observe and appreciate the deep space universe.

Using the robotic telescope of Israel’s Bareket Observatory, located near the city of Modi’in, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, special musical image sonifications for the sight-impaired will provide live explanations as viewers can take a virtual journey through space and time.

The public also will be able to submit "ask the astronomer" questions before or during the live event, which takes place during Global Astronomy Month, a project of Astronomers Without Borders.

Live images seen will include objects such as nebulae, galaxies, asteroids, distant quasars and extrasolar planets.

This is the second international webcast featuring live and/or pre-recorded image sonification using Design Rhythmics Sonification Research Lab methods to convey color, brightness and pixel location of image content through musical encoding. Color is translated into one of nine instruments and brightness is translated into one of 43 pitches on six octaves of various musical scales.

A set of images and corresponding music from the first webcast in 2009 can be viewed here .

This event is an initiative of NASA and Ido Bareket Internet robotic telescope of the Bareket observatory as well as astronomers and coordinators.

The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is collaborating with Bareket Observatory on variable-object studies, of which deep sky imaging and high accuracy photometry are key elements. This is being accomplished using a high-end cooled astronomical CCD camera, connected to Bareket’s educational Internet telescope.

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

_________________“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” -Anonymous